Richard Price says he writes about trouble

St. Paul, Minn. — "Lush life," the new novel from Richard Price, tells the story of a robbery gone bad.

Early one morning, a couple of kids mug three drunks on New York's Lower East side. There's an exchange of words, a shot and one of the drunks falls dead. The price of those few seconds plays out in the days and weeks that follow.

Richard Price is acknowledged as one of the great masters of capturing the nuances of street life. He received an Academy Award nomination for "The Color of Money," and he has adapted his own bestseller "Clockers" for the screen. In addition, he has written scripts for HBO's "The Wire."

Richard Price says in "Lush Life" he wanted to explore how the Lower East side is home to several unique communities. There are the yuppie gentrifiers, the people from the housing projects, and the Chinese and Jewish communities.

Price told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr they exist in comparative isolation.